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Bazooka_Joe stated it dead on. He rated this: 0.5 stars out of 5.. and said "Unless you're a gullible, starry-eyed, Catholic, wiener-head, The Conjuring's story is sure to strike you as being nothing but a lousy pack-of-lies." I was so excited to see this until i realized it was about
Ed and Lorraine Warren. The duo who "verified" the Amityville House as haunted. Well Warrens, it has since been revealed (by the Lutz family themselves) that the whole thing was a hoax. Now, i'm not going to be so bold to say mediums don'e exsist, but i will tell you this proved to me the Warrens are hacks and fakes. As soon as i realized this was one of their stories i was completely put off.

Watched this movie alone in the dark around 11:30 at night, and I had to turn my desk light on a few times. It's definitely a very creepy and spooky movie. Good atmosphere, and some great acting. But suffers from all the same cliches that most of these "ghost" movies have. Obvious jump scares, loud noises and sudden music cues that catch you off guard. Hard pressed to call it a scary movie, more like a startling movie. Definitely one of the best in it's sub-genre, but overall it's rather forgettable. Ghost based horror movies are pumped out so fast and in such high quantity that everything is become cliche.

One final note, just something I was wondering while watching the movie. Does this title actually make any sense? To "conjure" something means to summon or evoke it, correct? Well that doesn't happen in this movie. No ritual summonings, no summonings at all actually.

Anyways, yes, it's a good movie, but it's nothing groundbreaking. Reminds me a bit of Paranormal Activity, the movie had all this hype, and when I finally watched it I was a bit let down. Worth a watch or two, but nothing special. It's a "ghost" based horror movie, you've seen one you've seen 'em all.

Ed and Lorraine Warren, the dynamic ghostbusting duo whose real life experiences at a New England farmhouse gave rise to the Amityville Horror franchise, tear yet another page out of their demonic scrapbook in order to tell the tale of Roger and Carolyn Perron. When the Perrons and their five daughters moved to a new home in rural Rhode Island they had no idea the place had a macabre history involving witchcraft and murder, nor were they aware that a dark presence still resided in the dusty nooks and crannies. No sooner had they settled in then the spooky hijinks began with banging walls and foul odours quickly giving way to eerie visitations and spectral assaults. By the time the Warrens were consulted the Perrons were living out of the downstairs parlour, the only relatively safe place in the entire house. Setting up shop with various paranormal detectors scattered throughout the building and a small team of demon watchers manning the controls, the Warrens and their hosts prepared for a series of spooky all-night vigils—but no one was prepared for the sheer malevolence they encountered…an evil with the ability to stretch far beyond the Perron’s front gate. There is a genuinely scary short film here. The first half of The Conjuring contains all the necessary ingredients for a week’s worth of nightmares with midnight treks into a dark cellar lit only by matches, haunted cabinets creaking open, and a little girl checking under her bed despite my whispered warnings to dive under the sheets instead. ”There’s something standing behind the door!” one child hisses to her little sister as my hand reaches for the light switch yet again. Unfortunately director James Wan decides halfway through that more is better than less and we’re treated to the usual string of Catholic clichés (the crucifix fell on the floor….oh nooooo!), leering rubber masks, and ridiculous images of a possessed Lili Taylor riding a bucking armchair and spitting blood. Not only did I (comfortably) turn the lights back off but the group hug finale had me wishing for a rematch. Where’s Max von Sydow and Jason Miller when you need them?

this is the scariest movie i've watched and i've been trying to find a movie that will scare me without using blood and guts and violence. There's not a lot of gore but very suspenseful. very creepy, very spooky. especially if you've just moved to a new home....

In 1971, Roger and Carolyn Perron move into an old farmhouse with their daughters. They find a boarded up entrance to a hidden basement and are soon haunted by paranormal forces. When they become desperate, they call in famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. They discover that the house has been haunted by a witch who murdered her own son and is trying to posses others to do the same. Ed and Lorraine try to convince the Church to allow them to perform and excorcism and save the Perrin family.
The story of a family in a haunted house has been used in a lot of horror movies, but The Conjuring does it pretty well. A lot of horror movies these days depend on jump scares to make the audience scared. This usually frightens you for a few seconds but ends up feeling like a cheap and lazy way to scare someone. However, the Conjuring is really good at building up tension and a creepy atosphere which ends up being much scarier than a simple jump scare. Also unlike a lot of other movies of its genre, there is nothing sexual, no nudity and no really violent scenes. The only reason the movie is rated R is only because of how scary it is. This means that The Conjuring doesn't really show you blood and gore to scare you, but lets you imagine what is happening, which means it can be as scary as you make it for youself.
All the characters in the movie; the Perrons and the Warrens as well as the other supporting characters are decently acted. The children are also surpsisingly convincing when they are acting in scenes where they have to be scared since child actors are usually not so good at acting. Some of the characters do feel really unecessary, like the 5 daughters. Only a few of them are really important to the story and even though the movie claims to be based on true events and therefore the daughters had to be there, some of them really don't do anything at all. But Ed and Lorraine themselves are pretty interesting, especially Lorraine who is a "clairvoyant". The effects in the film are also mostly practical, which makes everything feel more real than CGI effects.
Overall, The Conjuring is a creepy, scary movie that doesn't really on sex or violence, so you can watch it with your kids if they're up to it. Even though I really don't think that this happened in real life, the story is pretty interesting and the cinematography is really good as well as you get some really creepy shots. The Conjuring is one of the few movies that sets up a scary tone instead of jump scares and is an enjoyable horror film you can watch with anybody that can handle being a little scared.

A haunted house, evil spirit, God, demons, exorcism, and all the scare that goes with them. If you like films of this type, this is probably one of the better made ones. I don't believe in any of these, so I am biased, and did not find the film interesting. At the end, a quote from Ed Warren, the paranormal expert, reminded us that God and demons are real. I find that laughable.